Will Kerr says a "sea change" is needed in attitude to passing info to police and slated 'PSNI' posters

Share

Get daily updates directly to your inbox

Thank you for subscribing!

Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email

Northern Ireland is facing “another generation” of dissident republican violence if nationalist communities do not change their attitude to passing information to the police, it has been warned.

One of the region’s most senior officers said a “sea change” in the way many people think about co-operating with the PSNI with regard to terrorist related crime is essential in their fight against deadly terror groups.

Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr told Belfast Live there is a good flow of information from nationalist areas when it comes to “normal” crime like drugs, car theft, burglaries etc, but with what is perceived as politically motivated activity there is still a Troubles mentality to informing. He said there is a problem because intelligence “is seen as a dirty word in some communities”.

The ACC warns: “If we can’t find a way to re-frame that relationship between republicanism and the police on that issue, these groups are going to be about for another generation or two and that is just not acceptable.”

He also singled out the lack of political progress on addressing ‘legacy’ issues like the formation of an Historical Investigations Unit to probe Troubles related incidents for “souring” the PSNI’s relationship with nationalist communties.

The senior officer said there is a “sort of passive acceptance” of violent dissidents in some areas whereby people do not support their actions, but will not cross the line and inform on them.

He added: “If we understand our own history and we understand why we’ve got this community muscle memory, that it’s anathema to certain communities to pass information to the police or the state, whether the police is a proxy for the state.

The loose talk posters

“We understand that and we understand our own history and why we’ve ended up in that place, but we also need to understand that if we don’t address that space, if we don’t reform ourselves collectively to understand that community information is the only way you’re going to tackle these groups, it’s the only way we’re going to stop them continuing to conduct paramilitary-style attacks on their own community and continuing to kill prison officers and police officers, who are increasingly from and live within these communities.

“If we don’t tackle that passive acceptance base, we’re accepting these groups are going to be about for another generation or two. That doesn’t seem right and it can’t be right that we accept that, that all Irish history is cyclical and we’re just destined to have another generation of this, because that’s what it is. In 2016, there must be a better more positive way.”

He added: “Because the vast bulk of information that, as they would perceive, their community give us relates to normal policing issues to protect that community - about child sexual abuse, about drugs, about anti-social behaviour, about people stealing cars or stealing out of cars, it’s normalised stuff that you would expect communities and their police service to talk about.

“We need that information from communities, we can’t police effectively without it, every police service needs active community information.

"This message People Should Not Inform, is that really what these people are saying, that people shouldn’t inform about child sex abuse, about drugs, about things that really matter to communities in North and West Belfast and other areas, that really concern them, that really cause harm, and they’re really concerned about their kids being exposed to this type of harm.”

Mr Kerr said part of the problem is the fact the past still infects relationships with the police.

He added: “We’ve no shared narrative, or even shared agreement on how to deal with the past. The Stormont House Agreement set out a political intent around it, in terms of an Historical Investigations Unit and its associated bodies, but we haven’t been able to implement that yet.

“So current day policing still owns the past, the responsibility for the investigation of the past, and it does sour our relationship with communities today.

"That is an ongoing challenge for policing and the Chief Constable has been on public record a number times saying he would be very happy to see the full implementation of all bodies that were set out in the Stormont House Agreement to take that responsibility, and all the associated documentation and intelligence, away from policing and give it to a group or a body that is wholly independent and let us concentrate on policing, on keeping communities safe today.”

Asked about the accusation police allow some criminals to carry on their activities in exchange for information, ACC Kerr dismissed it as “nonsense”, adding “you just couldn’t get away with it” thanks to the high level of oversight the PSNI is subjected to.

A PSNI officer (Image: Stock image)

He added: “It was a convenient narrative 20 years ago and sometimes it’s a convenient narrative today to say we’ve all these criminals doing this damage within their own community who work for us and we allow them to do that without any punitive sanction. It’s all nonsense. It would be illegal and we can’t do it.”

Asked if he believes that MI5 are subject to the same accountability, he added that “we have a close relationship with MI5 when it comes to dealing with dissident republicanism”.

He went on: “MI5 are the same as the PSNI, we work to an incredibly robust accountability regime, it’s entirely human rights compliant and we are ultimately answerable to the courts.”

ACC Kerr also attacked dissident groups, saying they have little support, but “maintain the illusion of community support” through threatening people against passing information.

He added: “They know that the reason people within their own communities won’t give information to the police is because they are scared. They work very hard to threaten people in their communities, they put up posters with a clear unambiguous inference of violence if people go do and tell the police information.

“But then they try and turn it into this very superficial propaganda to say that, well they haven’t told the police therefore we have that passive support, but there’s no connection between the two. People don’t come to the police because they’re scared.”